System for transmitting payment information using mobile terminal and method thereof

ABSTRACT

In order to process a mobile transaction offline, a user terminal transmits a mobile transaction code and a merchant terminal ID to a payment information transmission server and the payment information transmission server transmits a payment information message including the mobile transaction code to a merchant terminal, so that it is possible to process mobile transactions through a unified user interface despite different payment plans of various payment service providers.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the priority of Korean Patent Application No.10-2020-0020635 filed on Feb. 19, 2020, in the Korean IntellectualProperty Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein byreference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a system for transmitting paymentinformation using a mobile terminal and a method thereof, and moreparticularly, to a system for transmitting payment information and amethod thereof capable of efficiently transmitting payment informationdespite a plurality of smartphone payment service applications providedby various payment service providers.

Description of the Related Art

Recently, personal communication terminals such as smartphones have beenwidely distributed. The personal communication terminals such assmartphones have been developed to perform not only a function of atelephone for communicating with the other party, but also functions ofInternet access, multimedia viewing, and mobile payment.

In particular, as the smartphones provide a payment function for mobiletransactions, the demand for more convenient and safe mobile paymentshas increased.

Accordingly, various payment service providers not only provide apayment means in online shopping malls, but also launch even into apayment business at offline stores using smartphones, and as a result,various payment plans have appeared for each payment service provider.

Particularly, as the number of offline payment service providers usingsmartphones increases, types of payment plans also increase, and thus,many problems occur.

In other words, in order to perform the mobile payment using smartphonesoffline, payment information stored in the smartphone needs to betransmitted to a merchant terminal such as point of sales (POS), butpayment software programs and/or interface devices for transmitting thepayment information stored in the smartphone to the POS are not unified,and thus, each payment service provider transmits the paymentinformation using its own interface device and/or payment softwareprogram. For example, some payment service providers provide its own NFCreaders to read the payment information from the smartphones, while somepayment service providers provide a magnetic secure transmission (MST)method to use a conventional magnetic card infrastructure as it is. Inaddition, some payment service providers provide a method of reading aQR code displayed on a user's smartphone with a reader, and otherpayment service providers provide a method of reading a barcodedisplayed on the user's smartphone, and some payment service providersalso use these methods in combination.

As such, as each payment service provider independently establishes aninterface to communicate with a smartphone, confusion and inconvenienceof users are increased, and that becomes a major obstacle to the growthof the mobile payment market using the smartphones.

Furthermore, even in the terms of merchants, there is a problem in thatwhenever a new payment service provider comes up, a new payment softwareprogram on the POS system needs to be installed and clerks working at amerchant's workplace need to be educated to process each payment plan.

Accordingly, a unified interface method is needed with which a personalmobile terminal, such as a smartphone, is able to transmit the paymentinformation to a merchant's POS system despite of various paymentservice providers.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An object of the present invention is to provide a system and a methodfor transmitting payment information from a user's mobile terminal to amerchant terminal commonly used by various payment service providers.According to the present invention to solve the technical objects, apayment information transmission server receives a mobile transactioncode, a merchant terminal ID and a payment service provider ID.

The payment information transmission server transmits a paymentinformation message including an instruction and the mobile transactioncode to the merchant terminal, wherein, the instruction is generatedreferring to the merchant terminal ID.

Further, a software agent on the merchant terminal receives theinstruction and the mobile transaction code from the payment informationtransmission server, and executes the instruction in order for a paymentsoftware program on the merchant terminal to transmit the transactioncode to an authentication server despite different types of the paymentsoftware programs.

Further, according to the present invention to solve the technicalobjects, a system for transmitting payment information using a mobileterminal includes a merchant terminal ID provider, an user's mobileterminal configured to transmit a payment request message includingmerchant terminal ID acquired from the merchant terminal ID provider anda mobile transaction code, a payment information transmission serverconfigured to generate a payment information message for transmittingthe mobile transaction code received from the user's mobile terminal toa merchant terminal corresponding to the merchant terminal ID, and themerchant terminal configured to transmit the mobile transaction codereceived from the payment information transmission server to a paymentauthentication server.

According to the present invention, in an offline payment plan using auser's mobile terminal, despite the payment plans of various paymentservice providers, it is possible to process mobile transactions througha unified payment system.

By making it possible to use a user interface and a payment processprovided by each conventional payment service provider as it is, it ispossible to increase convenience of payment service providers and usersparticipating in the market.

It is possible to process offline mobile transactions using a user'smobile terminal without providing an additional reader or scanner at anoffline store.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other aspects, features and other advantages of thepresent invention will be more clearly understood from the followingdetailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanyingdrawings, in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates a process of downloading a payment serviceapplication according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 illustrates a process of acquiring a mobile transaction codeaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 illustrates a payment service system according to an embodimentof the present invention;

FIGS. 4 and 5 illustrate a process of executing transmission of paymentinformation through a POS system by an agent software according to anembodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 6 is a signal processing diagram according to an embodiment of thepresent invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

FIG. 1 illustrates a process of downloading a mobile payment serviceapplication according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, a payment service provider 12 develops apayment service application having a payment service function anduploads the payment service application to an application server 11. Thepayment service application has a payment service provider ID and anexecution file for generating and transmitting a payment request messageincluding a merchant terminal ID, a payment service provider ID and atransaction code.

Meanwhile, if the payment service application has already been uploadedto the application server 11, the payment service provider 12 can accessthe application server 11 to update the payment service application. Theupdated payment service application also has payment service provider IDand an execution file for generating and transmitting a payment requestmessage including a merchant terminal ID, a payment service provider IDand a transaction code. The execution file may be configured in alibrary format in the smartphone application.

A user may download and install the payment service application havingthe payment service provider ID and the execution file by accessing theapplication server 11 through the user's smartphone.

Alternatively, if the payment service application is already installedin the user's smartphone, the user may update the payment serviceapplication so that the payment service application has the paymentservice provider ID and the execution file.

FIG. 2 illustrates a process of acquiring a mobile transaction codeaccording to an embodiment of the present invention. As illustrated inFIG. 2, when a user runs a payment service application on a smartphone13 and performs smartphone user authentication, the user's smartphone 13transmits to a payment authentication server 17 a mobile transactioncode request message including a card ID and user authenticationinformation.

In a process of registering an actual credit card through the paymentservice application, a card ID has already been generated correspondingto a user's actual credit card number.

Therefore, the generated card ID is stored in the smartphone paymentservice application and the payment authentication server 17.

The payment authentication server 17 authenticates whether the user'ssmartphone 13 which has requested a transaction code is legitimate byusing the authentication information transmitted from the user'ssmartphone 13, and checks whether the card ID received from the user'ssmartphone 13 matches a card ID previously generated during the creditcard registration.

When the user authentication and the checking of the card ID arecompleted, the payment authentication server 17 generates and stores atransaction code corresponding to the card ID received from the user'ssmartphone 13. In addition, the transaction code generated by thepayment authentication server 17 is transmitted to the user's smartphone13.

The payment authentication server 17 checks whether the transaction codetransmitted to the user's smartphone 13 matches the transaction codereceived from a merchant terminal 16. When the matching is confirmed,the payment authentication server 17 may transmit the actual credit cardnumber corresponding to the received transaction code to a paymentapproval server 18.

As an example, the transaction code may be generated by changing onlythe remaining 10 digits while leaving 6 digits as it is from the actualcredit card number consisting of 16 digits. The generated transactioncode is stored in the payment authentication server 17, and thegenerated transaction code corresponds to the actual credit card numberand the card ID. Since the transaction code may be generated and storedfor each transaction in correspondence with the actual credit cardnumber and the card ID, the payment authentication server 17 may store aplurality of transaction codes corresponding to one actual credit cardnumber and one card ID, and in case that the transaction is canceled, atransaction corresponding to the transaction code is processed to becanceled.

Meanwhile, the transaction code may also be generated by adding aspecific identification code which indicates “transaction code” to the16-digit actual credit card number.

Table 1 illustrates how actual credit card number corresponds to card IDand transaction code(s) which are stored in the payment authenticationserver 17.

TABLE 1 User 1 Actual credit Card ID #1 Mobile Transaction code #1 cardnumber #1 Mobile Transaction code #2 Mobile Transaction code #3 MobileTransaction code #4 Actual credit Card ID #2 Mobile Transaction code #1card number #2 Mobile Transaction code #2 User 2 Actual credit Card ID#1 Mobile Transaction code #1 card number #1 Mobile Transaction code #2

The user may register a user's credit card for a mobile transaction onthe payment authentication server 17 using the payment serviceapplication. When the user registers a user's own credit card on thepayment authentication server 17 using the payment service applicationof the smartphone 13, as illustrated in Table 1, a card ID correspondingto the actual credit card number may be generated and stored.

In addition, as illustrated in Table 1, since the user may use aplurality of credit cards, a plurality of credit cards numbers may beregistered for one user, and since the transaction code may be generatedfor each transaction, a plurality of transaction codes corresponding toone actual credit card number may be generated and stored.

FIG. 3 illustrates a payment service system according to an embodimentof the present invention. As illustrated in FIG. 3, the payment systemincludes a merchant terminal ID provider 14, a user's smartphone 13, apayment information transmission server 15, a merchant terminal 16, apayment authentication server 17, and a payment approval server 18. Themerchant terminal ID provider 14 stores an identifier to identify themerchant terminal 16, and it provides the merchant terminal ID to theuser' smartphone 13.

In general, the merchant terminal 16 may be a point of sale (POS) systeminstalled in an offline store. The merchant terminal ID provider 14 maybe a plastic pad or a paper pad on which a barcode or a QR code isprinted, which has the merchant terminal ID. It also may be a pad-typeor sticker-type NFC tag which may provide a merchant terminal ID by nearfield communication (NFC). Furthermore, the merchant terminal IDprovider 14 may be an electrical device which is able to generate andprovide a merchant terminal ID. Various methods of providing themerchant terminal ID through communication with a user's mobile terminalsuch as a smartphone, such as scanning or reading may be applied, butthe merchant terminal ID provider is preferably an NFC tag forconvenience of use.

The merchant terminal ID provider 14 stores the merchant terminal ID foridentifying the merchant terminal 16 and then performs a function ofproviding the stored merchant terminal ID to the user's smartphone 13,but does not transmit any information to the merchant terminal 16directly, and thus, the merchant terminal ID provider 14 does not needto be connected to the merchant terminal 16 in a wired or wirelessmanner.

When the user completes the user authentication by running the paymentservice application installed on the user's own smartphone 13 forpayment, a mobile transaction code is generated in the authenticationserver 17 by request of user's smartphone 13, and the transaction codeis transmitted from the payment authentication server 17 to the user'ssmartphone 13.

The user's smartphone acquires the merchant terminal ID from themerchant terminal ID provider. For example, if the merchant terminal IDprovider 14 is the NFC type, the user may acquire the merchant terminalID by tagging the user's own smartphone 13 into the merchant terminal IDprovider 14.

The payment service application run on the user's smartphone 13transmits to the payment information transmission server 15 a paymentrequest message which includes the mobile transaction code through awireless network. In addition, the payment request message may furtherinclude the merchant terminal ID and the payment service provider ID.

The wireless network may also be a cellular network or a Wi-Fi network,or may also be other networks that the smartphone 13 may accesswirelessly.

When the payment information transmission server 15 receives the paymentservice provider ID, the payment information transmission server 15generates a payment information message. The payment information messageincludes the mobile transaction code received from the user's smartphone13. In addition, the payment information message may further include aninstruction which should be executed by a software agent 19 installed onthe merchant terminal 16.

Herein, the software agent 19 is a software program installed on themerchant terminal 16 in order for a payment software program on themerchant terminal 16 to transmit the mobile transaction code to thepayment authentication server 17 by performing the instruction includedin the payment information message.

In general, a plurality of payment software programs may be installed inthe merchant terminal 16, because each payment service provider installsits own payment software program on the merchant terminal 16 in orderfor the merchant terminal 16 to receive and transmit mobile transactioncode.

Therefore, each payment service provider depends on its own softwareprogram installed on the merchant terminal 16, and which causesdifferent procedures according to the various payment software programs.

However, the software agent 19 installed on the merchant terminal 16 ofthe present invention operates to transmit the mobile transaction codeaccording to the instruction included in the payment information messagereceived from the payment information transmission server 15, and sincethe instruction in the payment information message is generated byreflecting a process of the payment software, the transaction code maybe accurately transmitted despite of various kinds of payment softwareprograms.

For example, even when user interfaces (UIs) provided on the merchantterminal 16 are different from each other according to various paymentservice providers, the payment information transmission server 15generates an instruction referring to service provider ID so that thetransaction code is transmitted according to a UI of the payment serviceprovider. Thereby the payment information is adaptively generatedaccording to a payment service provider and transmitted.

When the payment information transmission server 15 recognizes that thepayment service provider is “service provider A” based on the paymentservice provider ID, the payment information transmission server 15 maygenerate an instruction that instructs the software agent 19 on themerchant terminal 16 to pop up a payment window of “service provider A”by running the payment software program of “service provider A” and toinsert the mobile transaction code to an input position of the pop-upwindow.

Alternatively, when the payment information transmission server 15recognizes that the payment service provider is “service provider B”based on the payment service provider ID, the payment informationtransmission server 15 may generate an instruction that instructs thesoftware agent 19 on the merchant terminal 16 to insert the mobiletransaction code to an input position of a payment window of “serviceprovider B”.

The instruction may be generated adapting to the payment software ofeach payment service provider, and may be stored in advance in thepayment information transmission server 15.

If changes occur in the merchant terminal 16 such as an addition of anew payment software program or a change of procedures for transmittingpayment information, the instruction generated by the paymentinformation transmission server 15 may be changed in order to reflectthe change in the merchant terminal 16.

Table 2 illustrates an example of the instruction corresponding to thepayment service provider according to the present invention.

TABLE 2 Payment service provider ID Instruction Payment service provider#1 Pop up payment page and input mobile transaction code Payment serviceprovider #2 Input mobile transaction code to cursor position of paymentwindow Payment service provider #3 Pop up payment page and input mobiletransaction code after moving cursor position to left end

The payment information transmission server 15 generates a paymentinformation message including the instruction shown in Table 2 and themobile transaction code and transmits the generated payment informationmessage to the merchant terminal 16. Preferably, the instruction and themobile transaction code may be transmitted in a single paymentinformation message. However, alternatively, the instruction and mobiletransaction code may be transmitted through respective messages.

At this time, a merchant terminal to which the payment informationmessage is to be transmitted is determined by the merchant terminal IDtransmitted from the user's smartphone 13.

As described above, the software agent 19 which is pre-installed on themerchant terminal executes the instruction included in the paymentinformation message received from the payment information transmissionserver 15. The Instruction such as pop-up of the user interface windowcorresponding to the payment service provider, the input of the mobiletransaction code in a specific position of the window, and the like isperformed.

The software agent 19 may be downloaded and installed by the merchantthrough a network to which the POS system is connected, or alsoinstalled by copying and executing a file from a storage device such asa flash memory.

The software agent 19 may function as a virtual input device so as toexhibit the same effect as pressing a specific keyboard by executing theinstruction.

Since the software agent 19 is connected to the payment informationtransmission server 15 by a link, when an update is required, the updateof the software agent 19 may be performed through a communication withthe payment information transmission server 15.

FIGS. 4 and 5 illustrate a process of transmitting payment informationin a POS system by the software agent 19 according to an embodiment ofthe present invention.

When the merchant terminal 16 receives the payment information messagefrom the payment information transmission server 15, as illustrated inFIG. 4, the software agent 19 activates a pop-up window corresponding tothe payment service provider according to the instruction from paymentinformation transmission server 15.

Subsequently, as illustrated in FIG. 5, the software agent 19 on themerchant terminal 16 inserts the mobile transaction code to a cursorposition of the pop-up window by performing the instruction.

The merchant terminal 16 receiving the mobile transaction code transmitsthe mobile transaction code to the payment authentication server 17. Thepayment authentication server 17 checks whether the mobile transactioncode transmitted from the merchant terminal 16 matches the mobiletransaction code previously generated by the payment authenticationserver 17 and transmitted to the user's smartphone 13.

When the matching is checked, the payment authentication server 17transmits an actual credit card number corresponding to the mobiletransaction code to the payment approval server 18.

FIG. 6 is a signal processing diagram according to an embodiment of thepresent invention. Referring to FIG. 6, the user's smartphone 13transmits an application request message to the application server 11 todownload a mobile payment service application of a payment serviceprovider (S601), downloads the requested application (S602) and installsthe mobile payment service application (S603). The application includesa payment service provider ID and an execution file for transmitting amerchant terminal Identifier, a payment service provider identifier anda transaction code to the payment information transmission server 15.

When the user runs the payment service application on the user'ssmartphone 13, the smartphone 13 performs user authentication for amobile payment (S604), and the payment service application on thesmartphone 13 transmits a mobile transaction code request messageincluding user authentication information and a card ID of a credit cardselected by the user to the payment authentication server 17 (S605).

When the payment authentication server 17 receives the mobiletransaction code request message, the payment authentication server 17performs user authentication (S606).

After performing the user authentication, the payment authenticationserver 17 generates and stores a mobile transaction code correspondingto the received card ID (S607), and transmits the generated mobiletransaction code to the user's smartphone 13 (S608).

When the user's smartphone 13 receives the mobile transaction code fromthe payment authentication server 17 (S608), the user's smartphone 13acquires a merchant terminal ID from the merchant terminal ID provider14 (S610).

If the merchant terminal ID provider 14 is an NFC tag, the user tags theuser's smartphone 13 into the NFC tag in order for the user's smartphone13 to acquire the merchant terminal ID.

Since the steps of receiving of the mobile transaction code (S608) andacquiring of the merchant terminal ID (S610) are mutually independentfrom each other, the mobile transaction code may also be received (S608)after the merchant terminal ID is acquired (S610).

When the application installed on the user's smartphone 13 executes theexecution file included in the application, the application transmits apayment request message including the merchant terminal ID, the mobiletransaction code, and the payment service provider ID to the paymentinformation transmission server 15 (S611).

The merchant terminal ID, the mobile transaction code, and the paymentservice provider ID may be transmitted respectively, instead of beingtransmitted in a single payment request message.

The payment information transmission server 15 generates an instructionreferring to the payment service provider ID in order for the softwareagent 19 to accurately deliver the mobile transaction code to a paymentsoftware program on the merchant terminal 16 (S612).

The payment information transmission server 15 determines to whichmerchant terminal the payment information message should be transmittedby referring to the merchant terminal ID (S613), and transmits a paymentinformation message to a merchant terminal 16 corresponding to themerchant terminal ID (S614).

Preferably, the instruction and the mobile transaction code may beincluded in the payment information message. However, alternatively, theinstruction and mobile transaction code may be transmitted throughrespective messages.

When the merchant terminal 16 receives the payment information messagefrom the payment information transmission server 15, the software agent19 executes the instruction, such as activating a window on the POSscreen of the merchant terminal 16 corresponding to the payment serviceprovider by controlling the payment software installed in the merchantterminal 16 and inserting the mobile transaction code to a predeterminedposition in the window (S615) such as a position pointed by a cursor onthe POS screen of the merchant terminal 16.

The merchant terminal 16 transmits the mobile transaction code to thepayment authentication server 17 (S616), and the payment authenticationserver 17 confirms a legitimate transaction when the mobile transactioncode received from the merchant terminal 16 matches the mobiletransaction code previously generated by the payment authenticationserver 17 and transmitted to the user's smartphone 13 (S617).

When the payment authentication server 17 confirms that it is alegitimate transaction, it transmits an actual credit card numbercorresponding to the mobile transaction code to the payment approvalserver 18.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of performing a mobile payment service,the method comprising: generating, by a user terminal, a mobiletransaction code request message including a card ID of a credit cardselected by a user; receiving, by a payment authentication server, themobile transaction code request message from the user terminal, andgenerating a mobile transaction code; receiving, by the user terminal,the mobile transaction code from the payment authentication server;acquiring, by the user terminal, a merchant terminal ID from a merchantterminal ID provider and generating a payment request message includinga merchant terminal ID and the mobile transaction code, wherein thepayment request message further includes a payment service provider ID;receiving, by a payment information transmission server, the paymentrequest message from the user terminal and generating a paymentinformation message including the mobile transaction code, wherein thepayment information message further includes an instruction specificallyassigned to the payment service provider ID in order for a softwareagent to accurately deliver the mobile transaction code to a paymentsoftware program; receiving, by a merchant terminal, the paymentinformation message from the payment information transmission server,wherein the software agent activates a window on a POS screen of themerchant terminal corresponding to the payment service provider ID andinserts the mobile transaction code to a predetermined position in thewindow; and transmitting, by the merchant terminal, the mobiletransaction code to the payment authentication server.
 2. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising determining, by the payment informationtransmission server, the merchant terminal by referring to the merchantterminal ID.
 3. A system for performing a mobile payment service, thesystem comprising: a merchant terminal ID provider configured to store amerchant terminal ID; a user terminal configured to: generate a mobiletransaction code request message including a card ID of a credit cardselected by a user; receive a mobile transaction code; and acquire themerchant terminal ID from the merchant terminal ID provider and generatea payment request message including a merchant terminal ID and themobile transaction code, wherein the payment request message furtherincludes a payment service provider ID; a payment authentication serverconfigured to: receive the mobile transaction code request message fromthe user terminal; generate the mobile transaction code; and transmitthe mobile transaction code to the user terminal; a payment informationtransmission server configured to: receive the payment request messagefrom the user terminal; and generate a payment information messageincluding the mobile transaction code, wherein the payment informationmessage further includes an instruction specifically assigned to thepayment service provider ID in order for a software agent to accuratelydeliver the mobile transaction code to a payment software program; and amerchant terminal configured to: receive the payment information messagefrom the payment information transmission server, wherein the softwareagent activates a window on a POS screen of the merchant terminalcorresponding to the payment service provider ID and inserts the mobiletransaction code to a predetermined position in the window, and transmitthe mobile transaction code to the payment authentication server.
 4. Thesystem of claim 3, wherein the payment information transmission serverdetermines the merchant terminal by referring to the merchant terminalID.